George D. Keith, Sr. was born 1875 in Falmouth, Tennessee and later
became Vice-President and co-founder of the Ben E. Keith Company. He was a
rancher and owned the George D. Keith & Sons Ranch near Wichita Falls,
Texas. Keith's ranching interests included the breeding of registered Hereford
cattle and Palomino horses. He served as the first president of the Texas and
Oklahoma Fair Association and was active in civic affairs. In 1897, Keith
married Meta Ransom with whom he had two sons, George, Jr. and Calvin. His
second wife, Mollie Black, whom he married in 1908, also bore two sons. Ben E.
Keith, his brother, operated the Ben E. Keith Company, a fruit and vegetable
brokerage, from its Fort Worth headquarters. Mollie Black Keith and her sons,
Kenneth and Jim, operated the ranch after George Keith's death in 1955. Mollie
Keith died in 1973 and Jim Keith was killed during a robbery at the ranch in
1975. Kenneth later donated some of the antiques from the ranch house to the
National Ranching Heritage Center at Texas Tech University.